If you’ve recently heard about Charter through a friend, a co-worker, an ad and are now considering subscribing to one or more of their services, here’s a little info about the company, what they offer, and what people have been saying about them.

Charter is Charter Communications, Inc., a Fortune 500 company with headquarters in Missouri and the fourth largest cable company in the United States. Charter provides services such as high-speed Internet, cable, and telephone services to approximately 5.5 million Americans in 27 states.

Charter maintains over 16,000 employees, and offers services that they say will “Bring Your Home To Life.” They do this through the latest in on-demand movies and TV shows, Internet speeds of up to 60Mbps in select markets, and being the 10th largest telephone service provider in the country.

As with most major providers, Charter will allow you to avail of their services in different bundles. This lets you pay a cheaper packaged price for two or more services than it would cost you to maintain two separate services.

Charter was awarded the “2007 Multi-System Operator of the Year” by Cable Magazine in that year, for expanding rapidly and helping to push forward the then innovative “triple play” bundle of cable, Internet and telephone services.

Like most providers, however, Charter is not without its faults. The Better Business Bureau has issued a warning to customers, saying that they have received reports of Charter making numerous billing errors, providing poor customer service, and failing to honor service appointments made with their existing customers. PCWorld Magazine also ranked Charter’s cable Internet service the lowest among the 14 providers covered, and in February 2008 Consumer Reports said that Charter’s cable/Internet/landline bundle was the worst of all major national carriers.

Well, there you have it. Charter is a big company with a wide range of services, but it also consistently receives negative feedback.

Before subscribing to or writing Charter off completely, it would do you a lot of good to ask people in your neighborhood who are Charter subscribers about their experiences, as the quality of service sometimes differs from area to area. If they’re happy with Charter, then you might be, too.